Strong Mexico peso inconvenient for exports -Ortiz

MEXICO CITY, July 31 (Reuters) - An exaggerated strengthening of the Mexican peso, hovering at 5-year highs against the dollar, is not convenient for the country's competitivity, Central Bank Governor Guillermo Ortiz said on Thursday.

"The rate differential has certainly provoked the strengthening of the peso and this obviously, when it is exaggerated, isn't very convenient because it hurts the country's competitivity," Ortiz told a morning radio newscast.

He forecast that Mexico's economy would grow about 2.8 percent or 2.9 percent in the first half of the year.

The peso traded at 10.0435 per dollar MEXO1 Thursday morning, near a five-year high. (Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz)